Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

syllables, with all unstressed syllables licensing only short vowels (though this case is not
without complications). What these patterns suggest is an origin in languages in which
unstressed syllables were at least somewhat restricted durationally, enough to cause
sufficient shortening of unstressed long vowels that the contrast should be lost. Stressed
syllables, however, cannot have been expanded durationally to a great extent for the
quantity contrast to remain intact. This prosodic profile actually fits the Dravidian
languages remarkably well. Many Dravidian languages are described as having some
degree of initial stress, or some immediate derivative, but this stress, as in Tamil
(Schiffman 1999, Bosch 1991:183), is not reported to be marked by a great durational
asymmetry. Durational curtailment of non-initial syllables, however, is demonstrated in
the frequent patterns of syncope of non-initial vowels in various patterns throughout the
histories of various Dravidian languages, e.g. Kannada (Schiffman 1983) Kurux (Pfeiffer
1972, Gordon 1976) and Malto (Gordon 1976). In Toda, in fact, a language which also
underwent massive syncope in non-initial syllables, Emeneau describes a length contrast
with a durational ration of about 1:2 in initial syllables. Toda also has strong initial-
syllable stress. In non-initial syllables, by contrast, Emeneau characterizes the long-short
distinction as more between “short and less short”, with the distinction being variable and
often difficult to perceive. This leads Emeneau to speculate that the contrast may be in
the process of disappearing.
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